When murder isn't as it appears
by KeJae
Summary: When Neal's cover goes wrong and he is ordered to murder a random person, what will the team think when he pulls the trigger?
1. Chapter 1

**When murder isn't as it appears,**

* * *

Neal was working undercover. It was something that he had done a thousand times since working with the FBI. The problem was the initiation that this group put forward, it was pass fail and someone had to die, the question was who.

* * *

The first meeting had gone well. Peter and the team kept surveillance in order to record the meeting and ensure the safety of Neal in this unknown group while Neal used his charm to worm his way into the criminal's trust. Things didn't take a turn for the worst until after Neal left the warehouse and before he made it to where the team was waiting.

As Neal was walking down the nearly deserted street, a large black van hurtled its way around the corner before screeching to a stop in front of him. Neal turned on his heels to avoid trouble, but before he could get away there was a little tranq dart sticking out of his neck. Sinking to the ground, Neal saw the men surround him. Their identities were obscured by ski masks and they removed his watch which they smashed on the ground. With his vision diminishing as consciousness left, Neal's last view was of the van as he was thrown into the back.

* * *

When Neal came to, he was tied to a chair in a room at an unknown location. He could easily free himself in general, but he was curious as to what was going on.

It didn't take long for a man to look in to check on him. Ducking back out of the room, the man went to inform the leader that their prisoner was awake.

The gang made a show when the leader came in. His entourage included his muscle, second in command, and a few of their general crew members. While the leader pulled a chair up acrossed from Neal, the others took their supportive positions around him.

"I suppose you are wondering what is going on Caffrey?"

Recognizing a few faces, he knew this was the same group that he had been meeting before. Apparently, they were paranoid and waited to kidnap him before introducing him to the real leader of the group.

"Some kind of meet and greet I presume." He threw in some humor backed by mega-watt charm in the hope of disarming his captor's defenses.

Laughing, the leader seemed to approve. "I like you. You have a sense of humor. If you pass our initiation you will do well with us."

Hmm, that could either be a good thing or a bad thing. It depended on what this 'initiation' included. "May I inquire as to what this initiation includes?"

Smiling with pleasure, the leader seemed delighted with Neal. "So polite, the more you speak, the more I like you. Yes, you may inquire."

Feeling a growing sense of foreboding, Neal posed his question directly. "What does this 'initiation' include?"

"In a few hours my men will abduct another person. They will be random and you will shoot them dead. If you don't, my men will shoot you both and dump your bodies in the river." There was a maniacal glee as the man described his test. When he finished, the look of evil in his dark eyes sent a chill down Neal's spine.

Suppressing his reactions, Neal kept his glare of hatred to himself while displaying his charm. "Sounds easy enough. Is there any particulars that I should be aware of?"

The man looked displeased. He really didn't like others taking action without his permission.

Correcting his error, Neal reworded his response. "I apologize. May I ask if there are any other particulars?"

Not fully reassured, but easing up on his anger. "You had better watch your tongue in future. This is your only warning!"

Taking it as being his turn, Neal asked. "Are there any particulars that I should be aware of?"

Flipping the coin of emotions, the man landed on carefree and unconcerned. "No, there is no particular location or number of times that you must shoot him. As long as he is dead, I have no farther concern."

The man was specific on gender this time, for it being "random," there was likely to be a reason behind the choice. Wondering what was to come, but not daring to ask at the moment, Neal decided to plan instead. How was he going to pull this off alone?

As the conversation ended, Neal was released to be cleaned up and refresh himself. He was still a hostage, but as he was intended to be either dead or, a brother in arms shortly, they decided to give him some reprieve from his captivity.

* * *

Peter and the team were concerned when the van careened onto the scene, and distraught when Neal was abducted. Without the watch they had no means of directly tracking him, the van had no identification, and the van was gone before anyone could get a license plate number.

It took them hours to track down the new location. Jones followed tracking cameras, Diana checked with the few witnesses, and Peter fretted in his office as the work was done in the most efficient means possible.

Eventually, they caught up and were arranging surveillance to get a feel for what was going on. Peter held the warrant as he waited for the chance to get his friend back.

* * *

When the time came for the initiation, Neal wasn't pleased. He had thought and schemed only he didn't know for sure how to pull this off. Then he saw who the random person was.

* * *

The man had annoyed the gang on accident. He was doing his own work as a freelance spy when he encroached on the gang's territory for making a new friend in the underworld. This was worthy of a death sentence according to their rulers dictations.

Having learned of a threat on his life, the man had taken precautions. When he was taken he was wearing a bulletproof vest and an ear bud to keep in touch with his team. No one checked for these as he was believed to be a random person who had displeased the leader.

* * *

As the groups all moved into place, things began to happen.

The man was moved to stand with his back to a window, Neal was placed in front of him with a gun in his hand, and the FBI was prepared to break down the door.

"Ghaj yoD wep?" Neal seemed to question the air.

The man jerked his head forward sharply like he was twitching in fear. There was a look in his eyes that Neal understood.

Peter kicked in the door just in time to see Neal pull the trigger and the man fly backwards through the window. He ignored the comical look of the man as he appeared shocked that he had just been shot. Instead, Peter looked at Neal like Neal had stabbed him in the heart and twisted the blade. He couldn't believe that his nonviolent friend had just murdered someone. There was no looking out the window, seeing the body would just make the scene real and he couldn't handle that at the moment.

Shouts of "FBI, drop your weapons!" accompanied the rest of the agents as they moved in and began taking the men into custody.

Neal put the gun on the floor with one hand raised before he straightened up and held both hands up for arrest.

It was Jones who eventually looked out the window and worked with a team to solve the murder. They took pictures, collected evidence, worked to match ballistics, and saw the body carted off to the morgue via an ambulance. He hadn't seen Neal commit the crime, just knew that someone had shot someone else.

Diana ensured that the men were all taken into custody and carted away for processing. Then she was about to release Neal when Peter stopped her.

"He shot the man out the window. You're under arrest for murder Neal…" As Peter read him his rights, Diana looked confused which quickly changed to anger.

Seeing that Peter was still in shock with underlying anger, Diana was just angry, and Jones would know soon enough, Neal wondered how long it would take before they would be made aware of the truth?

Then the lights flashed in a pattern. Peter would be able to read it, but he was too in shock to recognize the Morse code. It was left to Neal to understand the message.

Seeing Neal relax didn't help Peter calm down. To prove his point that the man was dead, Peter pushed Neal over to the window, forced him to look down and see the ground covered in a pool of blood. "You killed a man Neal, how could you do that?"

The angry question was left unanswered. Neal was wondering how the man had arranged and pulled this plan off.

* * *

Determined to haul Neal in himself, Peter turned him and took him down to where he had parked. He was rougher than usual as he put Neal into the car, and it was the criminal's position of the back seat for this trip.

Neal was silent. He hadn't brought up a defense, tried to calm Peter down, or anything. There was nothing of the usual charm, just quite compliance.

Peter didn't understand this. He never dreamed that Neal would be able to kill someone, unless perhaps it was a dire life or death situation. Even then he thought Neal would react somehow. Wouldn't he feel regret, be upset that he had just taken a life, or was the whole nonviolent act a show to hide a killer? That thought chilled him. Had he let a homicidal maniac into his home, his life, his family?

Suddenly a vision assaulted his imagination. Neal was wearing orange and being sentences to life in prison for murder. As the door slammed and the metal lock clinked into place, Peter realized that this wasn't a nightmare that he could wake up from. This was the future that would be happening in the next few hours!

The part of Peter that had let the man past his defenses, let him into his heart, was horrified by that thought. Yet the part of the man that was the agent, fighting for justice, was resigned to that fate.

Neal simply sat in the back seat and watched the emotions play out on his friend's face. There was nothing that he could say to relieve his pain, he wouldn't believe the truth, no one would.

* * *

Arriving at the office, Peter made Neal do the perp walk in front of everyone. He wouldn't hide that Neal committed a crime of this magnitude, but he wouldn't advertise the crime either.

Despite none of the main team saying anything, the word spread from the crime scene to the office quickly. Peter was followed in by the whispers that Neal had committed murder. He heard some react in shock, feeling like he did that Neal couldn't possibly do something like that. Then there were those who acted like it was the expected end, like Neal was showing his true colors after all, something that Peter feared might be true.

The parade ended in the interrogation room where Peter began to question Neal about his actions for the day.

"How could you Neal? You have spent years telling me that you hate guns, you avoided violence during years of crimes, and you have always been smart about your actions. That is until today. Today you used a gun for cold blooded murder without giving us the chance to get you out of trouble, and that was stupid. I wish I could say that this was some trickery of your conning mastery, but I saw it with my own eyes. There is no way that you could have been prepared for that so it must have been real." He paused for a moment as his emotions were getting the better of him.

Trying to pull himself together he continued. "Jones is working on the ballistics for physical evidence, Blake is reviewing the security cameras, and Diana is working on eye witness accounts… which will have to include my own before this is over."

His emotions seeped in again despite his best efforts. "Please Neal, tell me that there is some convincing story that this could be a slight of hand trick… that you once again pulled off the impossible without committing murder?" There was a plea to his tone, an emotional request from a friend.

Unable to tell him a convincing story, but hoping to be proved innocent anyway, Neal simply sat quietly and allowed Peter to turn on the equipment for his official questioning.

* * *

Per usual, this story is a composition of other's ideas and the only credit I can take is for this particular mix ;)

Thank you everyone for reading, reviewing/commenting, following me and my stories, leaving kudos, and choosing to favorite :D I enjoy seeing the growing readership and am glad that you are enjoying my stories!

Just to let you know, I do have belated Father's Day plans next weekend so my posting will be later in the day on Sunday (I do still plan to post though).


	2. Chapter 2

**because it's fake.**

* * *

It had been a few hours. The gang had been rounded up and the organization had been closed down.

While the team finished the paperwork, there was nothing left for Chuck to be doing but to clear Bryce's name.

Walking into the office, Chuck walked up to the first agent that he encountered in the middle of the room. "Can I be directed to my friend who is currently being accused of murder? I don't know what name or story he is using here but he is tall, dark haired, blue eyed, and annoyingly charming, if not just plain annoying."

The entire office stopped to hear this odd request as they had no idea what was going on.

Before Blake could ask his question, Franklin beat him to it with his own question. "Why don't you know his name?" He was curious what answer he would get.

"I assume that you have a theory in mind so I'll leave you to run with that. My friend often has things he doesn't want shared with others so I'll keep what I know to myself until I have spoken with him." He didn't want to blow his cover and possibly endanger Bryce.

While Franklin glared at Chuck, Blake asked his question. "You seem familiar, who are you?"

Grinning in anticipation, Chuck answered. "I assume you're the agent who went over the security footage of the murder?"

Blake nodded yes.

Brandishing his badge, "Special Agent Charles Carmichael, I'm the murder victim." Chuck put his identification back into his pocket as he continued. "As much as I would like to stand here and chat, first I would like to get my friend's name cleared."

Amused by the entire offices shocked expressions, Chuck simply had a grin on his face while he waited for Blake to pull it together. After a second's hesitation, the agent led him away from the main space.

"You're going to have to share how you pulled that off later." Blake commented as they walked down the hallway.

"I'm sure that will be documented in order to clear his name and shared around the office for those curious about the situation." Chuck had noticed how part of the office got back to work when he left the room while others hurried to share the gossip that Bryce (or whoever he was here) hadn't actually committed murder.

Approaching the interrogation room, the air seemed to get thicker. There was a tension so thick that even Chuck could feel it as a new comer.

Jones and Diana were standing outside of the room viewing while Peter was inside grilling Neal (again) in an effort to get a confession. As the others approached, Diana was the first to turn around. She hadn't really seen the crime scene photos so she didn't recognize Chuck, but when Jones turned around he did.

"Hey, are you the victim's twin?" His eyes had gotten wider and he had jumped to the only understandable conclusion he could come up with.

Smirking at them, "No, I'm actually the murder victim, Special Agent Charles Carmichael." Turning to look through the glass and reading the tense body language of those inside. "If you don't mind, I should probably go break that up before he loses another friend for something that he didn't do." Without waiting for permission, Chuck walked around to the door.

* * *

For the last few hours, Peter had been going through official questions with Neal and Neal had honestly answered them. Still, Peter was furious with Neal.

The evidence had stacked up against him and Neal continued to treat the whole situation with careless ease. His body language would say that he hadn't committed the crime and was simply waiting to be cleared, but as he wasn't going to be cleared it came off like he simply didn't care, and that was what was getting to Peter.

It certainly didn't help Peter's temper when Neal smirked past his shoulder like the joke was about to be over and he was amused at how well he and his accomplices had gotten him. Then a voice sounded behind Peter causing him to whirl around in shock.

Leaning against the door post casually, Chuck smirked back at Neal. "You know, you and my mom are the only two people to shoot me… Why is it that two of the people closest to me could both have such unorthodox means of protecting me?"

While Peter stared at Chuck, his mind silently replayed the murder and recognized this man as the victim. Meanwhile, Neal and Chuck continued to converse around him.

"Your mom shot you too?" Neal questioned incredulously.

"Yeah, after you…" Chuck took a sidelong glance at Peter. "Left the picture last time, the Ring eventually killed dad and he left me a means of finding mom. She is Agent Frost and was trapped undercover in Volkoff Industries. I spent quite a while searching for her unsuccessfully, then a crazy scientist decided to sell a dangerous psychological drug on the black market. Long story short, mom risked her cover to bring the case to my team, the crazy scientist suspected me so she shot me, then she gave me the whole case to make up for missing my tenth birthday, and before it was over I ended up exposed to the drug anyway... It was an interesting way to get reunited with my mom."

Briefly, Neal looked sheepish as he remembered how he was reunited with Chuck after his first 'death.' Shaking it off, he whistled. "Spy royalty huh… well I guess the apple didn't fall far from the tree. I heard about how you took down Fulcrum, the Ring, Volkoff Industries, and still counting…"

Chuck just shrugged it off. "You created a good team and gave me a good jump start, so some of that credit goes to you too buddy."

Neal deflected the compliment back at him. "More like caused a good team to be created because I didn't put you together specifically. It was you who made the team work and be the best in the field." Sighing, he gave Chuck a frustrated look. "You still don't give yourself enough credit you know. That project has been in various stages for more than thirty years and no one has ever been able to do a fraction of what you have been able to do, and that includes your own father who created it."

"You know about Hartley and the other stuff?" Chuck was surprised.

"Yes I know. Remember, I worked with your father from our senior year until his death… minus those times that I 'left the picture.'" It was Neal's turn to shrug.

Annoyed by not knowing anything about what was going on around him, Peter felt the need to interject for some answers. "How did you pull off the whole fake murder thing?" He demanded to know.

Exchanging glances, Chuck and Neal decided that Chuck should take the lead on this one. "I'm an agent, but I was working on a freelance job when I accidentally encountered our crazy friend and his gang. They were trying to make a friend in the underground but my actions intervened causing trouble for their plans. As is his custom, their leader put a death sentence on my head and the word got around. My father in law is a con artist so when he heard, he past the word for me to take precautions. When I was taken, I was wearing a vest since they tend to shoot their victims and an ear bud for my team to track my movements while hearing what was going on around me. No one looked for them as I was just a random dude who was in the wrong place at the wrong time." Then looking to Neal he directed him to tell his part.

"I knew that I was supposed to shoot someone 'random' or we would both be shot and dumped in the river. Since they were kidnapping someone else and were specific on the gender I figured that it was going to happen to them if I was there or not and I didn't want to leave in case they needed help, but I couldn't figure out how to get us out of the situation. Then I was brought into the room and saw that the victim was supposed to be Chuck. We go way back so I asked him in code if he was wearing a vest, he nodded yes and gave me a look to proceed. It's been a few years, but we have done this routine before so I shot him again. Meanwhile, you busted down the door and arrested me as you know. When the lights flickered in a rhythm, I read the code and knew that he was okay." Neal bounced the story back to Chuck.

"My team had heard what was going on in the room and helped to prepare a way for me to go through the window and quickly drop down the three stories with a rope system. From there my sister and her husband provided a medical means of making me appear dead before some of my team played the paramedics with some agency help." Chuck and Neal shared a look that said he had left out the part where he flashed to actually accomplish the trick with the rope.

Neal took the tale to the finish. "You and the team busting in the door created the distraction needed to keep anyone from seeing Chuck setting up below. By the time anyone was looking out the window, they had the scene set up and both teams worked to close the case."

"So, when I asked you to give me a convincing story that would show you didn't commit murder, you didn't do so because…" Peter left the sentence hanging as he waited for Neal's answer. He wasn't happy yet, but he was in a better mood knowing that Neal hadn't in fact committed murder.

"Because, 'I asked him if he was wearing a vest, he signaled yes, and the lights blinked in Morse code to signal that he was okay' wasn't really a convincing story and I didn't know how he pulled it off." Neal gave him a look like he was simply relieved he could finally explain why he had let him suffer.

Calming down, Peter understood what he was saying. "So you couldn't give a convincing story and chose to keep quiet while you waited for him to show up and clear your name." Peter took a deep breath as his shoulders finally settled back into a relaxed position. Then turning to Chuck he decided to ask more questions about him. "How long have you known Neal?"

Laughing, Neal intervened. "There is no need to interrogate him Peter. He is an agent and I'm sure you're going to find a way to get to know him before the day is done. As much fun as it would be to watch two of my friends try to get to know each other and see who can get new information about me, we have a case to close and murder charges to drop."

Catching on to his motives the others went along with him. Chuck knew that they needed to create an acceptable back story, while Peter knew that Neal didn't want murder on is record any longer than necessary.

As the three walked back out to the office, they hauled agents back out to the main area with them. Once everyone was collected together, Peter, Neal, and Chuck stood up above the rest of the office and ran through the story again for everyone to get the whole picture.

Since that cleared up the murder misconception, the agents started to divide the work in order to finish the paperwork for arresting the gang and removing the murder charges from Neal's record.

The next part of the situation to amuse the office was when Chuck asked Neal who he was here while they were walking down the stairs.

With a sheepish grin, Neal laughed as he realized that Chuck hadn't even known that he was alive yet alone who he was here as. "Sorry, I should have remembered that you didn't know that I am… here." He awkwardly avoided saying that Chuck didn't even know that he was alive, something that had Chuck flinching and glaring the promise that it was something that would be addressed later. Acknowledging that the conversation would happen and explanations would be given, Neal continued with filling him in a little bit. "I am Neal Caffrery, a white collar thief, forger and con man extraordinaire who has reformed to be a legendary consultant for the FBI." He doffed his hat and bowed with a comical flourish as he finished. The point was to garner rolled eyes, chuckles, and annoyed humor, he succeeded.

Knowing that the words were played up with the specific intent of getting reactions, most of the agents let it go.

Peter rolled his eyes at Neal and almost allowed him slide with acting like being a criminal was a good thing. Almost being the key word. "What he is leaving out is the four years that he served, the ankle tracking monitor, and the two mile radius." Then he smirked over at Neal who was giving him a dirty look for blowing the picture he was creating.

Chuck laughed, he loved it! Bryce, Neal, was always acting like a protective big brother to him and now he got to watch as he interacted with his big brother figure. It reminded him of how Ellie wanted what was best for him while enjoying making fun of him. Provided the opportunity, he might just have to get Bryce back a little by giving Peter some ammunition to tease Neal about in the future. First he would have to remember to keep addressing him as Neal though…

* * *

As expected, Peter managed to get Neal and Chuck invited over to his place for dinner. His secret for having El okay with unexpected guests was to call her secretly and tell her what had happened during the day. After that the challenge (which wasn't hard) was getting Neal and chuck to be willing to come over for the evening. Chuck was curious to get to know Peter better while Neal was looking forward to having both of his closest friends get to know each other. Having both of his friends hanging around could be embarrassing, as Peter had already proved, but it would still be nice to have both of his friends in his life at the same time. Perhaps he could be more honest with them now?

Neal got all that he could hope for out of the evening. Peter and Chuck hit it off as only two honest agents could, El reminded Chuck of Ellie so much that they got along like family, and they all made plans to get together with the other team later in the week. Neal finally got to feel what it was like to have a collection of friends around which was made better because they consisted of Chuck, Peter, and El.

Even though the evening was a little awkward at times, like when Chuck told Peter about Neal "allegedly" getting him kicked out of school for cheating which led to Peter and El telling him off, things went over well. As Neal lay stretched out back at his apartment, he thought about how fortunate he was to have such friends in his life and looked forward to what the future had in store for them. Who knew, perhaps someday he would be allowed to tell Peter that he was secretly Agent Bryce Larkin?

* * *

Thank you all for reading this story and I hope you enjoyed it :D Also, a thanks to those who reviewed/commented, followed/bookmarked, left kudos, and chose to favorite!

Next week we start the tale of "FBI Unlikely." It's a multi fandom crossover, with introductions and third person perspective, about a prejudice agent learning to appreciate unique abilities in crime solving and the FBI. (I'll be posting two chapters next week with the first being the introduction to the characters while the second is the actual story). I hope you'll be back to enjoy another adventure ;)


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